Now comes the tough part: tasting hundreds of pickles. While most of the brands are small producers, some larger brands—Classen, Farm To Market, Tabasco and Vlasic—were also tasted.

Brand Reviews: A & B

Companies are listed in alphabetical order. Shelf-stable products can be stored on the shelf until they are opened; then they must go into the fridge. Products that are sold refrigerated must be kept cold from the moment of purchase. The difference: Shelf-stable products are pasteurized to prevent the growth of bacteria at room temperature.

Crisp Bread & Butter Pickles. No nutrition information. Although the ingredient list does not contain any sweetener, you can taste sweetness right away; a company representative told me that these do indeed contain sweetener (cane sugar). Despite the name, these are not especially crisp. They start out sweet, followed by a good kick of vinegar, then some spices.

Fire & Ice Cucumber. No nutrition information. The same level of heat as Sweet Flame (below), but just a small amount of sweetness.

Sweet Flame Cucumber. No nutrition information. Pleasantly sweet and moderately crunchy; a very good sweet and hot pickle. The large, even cucumber slices may or may not be a batch variation based on available pickles, but they were the best looking slices we’ve seen.

Maple Bourbon Bread & Butter. Serving size: 8 g. Sodium: 15 mg. Sugars: 0 g. Very unusual. What’s probably intended to be a little initial sweetness merely comes across as a muddle of tastes. This is followed by a whack of vinegar and a hint of pepperiness that curls the edges of your tongue.

NYC Deli Pickle. Serving size: 48 g. Sodium: 70 mg. Sugars: 2 g. An absolutely brilliant blend of savory and herbal flavors, with a wonderful three-part mustard-garlic-dill harmony. Not crunchy enough for me but I believe that’s a textural facet of this type of pickle, rather than a flaw. [RUNNER UP]

Whiskey Sour Pickles. Serving size: 48 g. Sodium: 60 mg. Sugars: 1 g.

Labels indicate “Contains NO Allergens”, a reference to the eight most common allergy-inducing foods—although the ingredients are almost never found in American pickles. In order of impact (number of affected individuals), these are milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts), fish (bass, cod, flounder), shellfish (crab, lobster, shrimp), soy and wheat.

Bread and Butter Chunks. Serving size: 1 oz (28 g). Sodium: 530 mg. Sugars: 5 g. These look less like fresh cucumbers than many other bread & butter pickles. There’s a short burst of sweetness, then a blend of sweetness and tangy flavors. The onions and garlic add a nice finishing note.

Garlic Dills. Serving size: 1 oz (28 g). Sodium: 360 mg. Sugars: 0 g. Good crunch. Garlic and dill are the chief flavors here, with a pleasing hint of pepper just at the end. Good, but we could use more garlic!.